FORMER French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door migration policy had been a grave mistake, and that European member states were still bearing the consequences of her controversial decision.

Her open-door policy, however, was pinpointed as one of the reasons for the recent rise of anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe.

This includes Italy which saw more a huge rise in right wing votes at the general election earlier this year.

It is also said to have boosted support for the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which in September became the first far-right party to enter Germany’s parliament for more than half a century.

There are four big challenges facing Europe today, Mr Valls continued: “Our relationship with Africa, the question of Europe’s open borders, demography and immigration.”

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Europe must take back control of immigration by “rethinking” its annual immigration quotas, and by limiting the number of foreigners admitted to a European member state based on the country’s economic needs and capacity to integrate, he continued.

“We need to think about what kind of immigration we need …. Because if we don’t, we will be stuck with a ‘go with the flow’ migration policy and we will always be overwhelmed,” Mr Valls added.

Mr Valls also commented on the most recent terrorist attack in Belgium, highlighting the broader issue of prison radicalisation.

A radicalised inmate killed two policewoman and a bystander in the Belgian city of Liege on Tuesday before being gunned down by police.

He was named by Belgian media as Benjamin Herman, a 36-year-old drug dealer and thief who had been let out on a two-day pass on Monday.

Mr Herman featured on a watchlist of people suspected of being in close contact with Islamist extremists in prison, raising questions about why he was freed unsupervised.

There are two terrorist threats we need to get ahead of, Mr Valls said: “returnees” – Islamic State (ISIS) fighters returning home following the terrorist group’s defeat in Iraq and Syria – and “radical Islamists who have recently been released from prison”.

“Letting convicted radicalised Islamists loose once they have served their prison sentence is a problem,” he warned.